Panel gears up for defense spending bill

In what’s become an annual rite of spring, the House Armed Services Committee is preparing to set the parameters for defense spending and lay out the new priorities for a downsized military.

Assembling the defense authorization bill is a complicated process often full of surprises as members offer amendments that can be quite controversial. Last year, for instance, provisions on detaining suspected terrorists drew a veto threat from President Barack Obama and threatened to derail the whole effort.

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“We are in the process of marking up the bill now — and, frankly, we have some challenges,” Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the committee, told an audience of young conservatives last week at a meeting of the Alexander Hamilton Society.

The California Republican has been working with committee members to draft an authorization package that diverges in many ways from the budget offered by the president. And as the committee gears up to consider the package next Wednesday, here are five key issues to watch:

The bottom line

Committee members will be haggling over billions of dollars, and the outcome could decide the fate of major weapons programs and initiatives.

The bill being considered would set the base defense budget at about $554 billion, roughly $4 billion above the president’s request and $8 billion above the caps set by the Budget Control Act, which both parties agreed to last year as a way to reduce the deficit.

It all comes down to a debate on weapons versus entitlements: The spending levels in McKeon’s proposal line up with the budget passed by House Republicans. That plan, crafted by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would largely spare the Pentagon from the budget ax, even as it slashes funding for Medicare and other social programs.

Still, the push to bolster defense spending could be undone in an instant if a compromise is not reached to stave off the hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic cuts to military spending set to take effect at the start of next year.

Health care benefits

The president’s budget plan would raise fees for TRICARE, which provides health care benefits for many servicemembers and veterans. The fee hikes have proved extremely unpopular, with veterans groups lobbying against them on Capitol Hill. And Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has seized on the issue on the campaign trail.

The budget plan to be considered in committee next week would do away with the hikes. And in a preview of the debate to come, Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) has made clear she’s “interested in how the committee will pay for the cost of such a proposal and the impact to the defense health budget.”

Readers' Comments (11)

President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the U.S. about the "military-industrial complex" in his farewell address. Military–industrial complex (MIC) is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them. These relationships include political contributions, political approval for defense spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and beneficial legislation and oversight of the industry. It is a type of iron triangle. The term is most often played in reference to the military of the United States, where it gained popularity after its use in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, though the term is applicable to any country with a similarly developed infrastructure. The term is sometimes used more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as institutions of the defense contractors, The Pentagon, and the Congress and executive branch. This sector is intrinsically prone to principal-agent problem, moral hazard, and rent seeking. Cases of political corruption have also surfaced with regularity. A similar thesis was originally expressed by Daniel Guérin, in his 1936 book Fascism and Big Business, about the fascist government support to heavy industry. It can be defined as, "an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs

Conventional war is a thing of the past, it cant be won. We got Osama without invading Pakistan. We invaded Afghanistan 10 years ago and did not get him. the U.S.S.R. was in Afghanistan for 10 years (The U.S.S.R. as we knew it does not exist anymore.) We lost conventional wars in Korea and Vietnam. The greatest supper power in the world beat by third world country's. Will we ever learn?.

We did not "lose" the police action in Korea. The 38th parallel is the demarcation line between north and south Korea established in 1945. After hostilities ceased, the 38th parallel is still the dividing line between north and south. The ROK is one of the power house economic countries in Asia. North Korea is one big gulag. I would hardly call that a "loss".

The Republicans may say the debt is a huge problem, but even they don't believe that. But they want all Americans to believe it. I heard Paul Ryan say that the reason that they want to pump more money into the Dept of Defense is because they don't believe the Pentagon when it says it can deal with what President Obama asked for. But people like Ryan and his fans are insisting.......because the debt really isn't important to them.

Nevada Iconoclast Party: NA Reply #3 May. 3, 2012 - 7:53 AM EST We did not "lose" the police action in Korea. The 38th parallel is the demarcation line between north and south Korea established in 1945. After hostilities ceased, the 38th parallel is still the dividing line between north and south. The ROK is one of the power house economic countries in Asia. North Korea is one big gulag. I would hardly call that a "loss".

We were back to the The 38th parallel, in less than 30 days. If we had stopped, it would be a win. We crossed and were pushed back to the 38th parallel.

Nevada Iconoclast Party: NA Reply #3 May. 3, 2012 - 7:53 AM EST We did not "lose" the police action in Korea. The 38th parallel is the demarcation line between north and south Korea established in 1945. After hostilities ceased, the 38th parallel is still the dividing line between north and south. The ROK is one of the power house economic countries in Asia. North Korea is one big gulag. I would hardly call that a "loss".

We were back to the The 38th parallel, in less than 30 days. If we had stopped, it would be a win. We crossed and were pushed back to the 38th parallel.

We're all getting scammed on the defense budget. They tie it to "patriotism" to invoke an emotional response. Same as the Climate Change scam (like we should really **** away money to gain an "ideal planetary temp") and the drug war. Over 900 bases! Really?! Did anyone notice NASA mothballed OUR shuttles, while the military not only still has the latest shuttle, it has a bigger "space budget" than NASA!?!?!?! WTF? CUT THE DAMN BUDGET IN HALF! Give our soldiers a 10% raise, CLOSE EVERY FRIGGIN BASE THAT IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO OUR IMMEDIATE SECURITY NEEDS!

I cannot make a direct recommendation on indefinite detention, as I have never worked at a prison, but I can only give the following benchmark: Israel, a developed nation, whom I support for a seat on the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, recently increased its indefinite detention policy from 60 days to one year. The difference between the United States and Israel is that the United States is fighting and detaining individuals under the Laws of War in venues around the world, where as Isreal is only detaining individuals on its {disputed} territory. While I am disappointed that the 60 days has become 365, the secuirty situation in the Region, specifically the instability in Syria and the uncertainty in Egypt with an election coming has left Israel little choice at the moment. Once these two situations have greater clarity, I am sure that Israel, a democracy and a nation of laws, will review its policy and procedures.

I also congratulate the Israeli Leadership for removing the exemption to Military Service that was previously extended to 800,000 "pious religious Jews", who while they will not serve in their military have no issue being "militant" against innocent girls riding the bus, and Palestinians exercising their Adjudicated right to title on specific property that was never abandoned. This is not giving precedent to a "right of return". There are One Million Arabs already there, as citizens of Israel. it is on their passports.

Anyone detained in the United States already has the right to due process.. .REad the Hamdan Decision.. .It is clear that Adam should step down from his plumb position because he has no idea how to do his job.

Even those who are captured outside get due process that is accorded under the Consitutional Article V court, a Military Commission as allowed under the law of War.

The only issue the D.C. court is scheduled to hear on 5/8 in Hamdan is what constitutes "material support". Clearly money, but how much, $300, $1700, a subway token? directions to a monument? How about inspirational support? Encouragement? clearly training someone on how to accomplish a terrorist act is material support, but how about those who just make the terrorist feel good about himself while offering moral encouragement and "mind altering training" where an innocent civilian going to work one morning, whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Agnostic, meets his or her death, is justifiable because one is committing Jihad, thus these innocent people deserve to die? What if we just call them "colllateral damage" instead?

This decision will be very interesting indeed. From the Documents released by the CounterTerrorism training center at West Point, I hope it is clear to everyone that al-Aulaqi, was intimitely involved as a planner, recruiter, and direct operative, and in my uniformed opinion, was involved in the 7/7/2005 bombing of the Tube and buses in London, the killing of 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, and numerous Muslims in Yemen and in Pakistan.

Let's recall that God thought the devil perfect while he was in heaven amongst the angels. Until the Fall.